There is a continued need for medication packages that are child resistant and tamper evident, yet allow the average adult to open the medication packages to get access to the medication therein, as well as the adult who, due to either age or medical infirmity, may have reduced motor skills. Such packaging has been called “child resistant senior friendly.” There is also a need to make this type of package economical to manufacture.
Over the years, a wide variety of disposable medication packages have been suggested which are accessible through a variety of folding, stripping, rupturing, peeling, and/or tearing procedures. These packages have typically been formed of transparent top layers which are sealed or otherwise bonded to backing layers in a manner which provides a cavity, pouch or “blister” in which the medicament is disposed. The top and backing layers may be formed of flexible packaging materials, rigid thermoformable plastic materials, foil, paper, laminates, or combinations thereof. Medicament cavities formed between such layers have been accessed by tearing into them from an edge of the package, which tearing may or may not be facilitated through the provision of a starting notch or slit, or by simply pushing on the blister until the medicament breaks through the backing layer. Alternatively, these cavities may be accessed by stripping a backing layer from the package to expose the cavity, or to expose a push-through underlayer. In other instances, the backing layer is made of foil that can be ruptured when the medication in the blister is pushed against the backing layer. Generally, these packages are tamper evident, but typically not child resistant. Other medication packages require some form of peeling of the bottom surface from the top surface to get access to the medication. Some examples of these types of medication packages that use peeling include U.S. Pat. No. RE29,705 (Compere); U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,248 (Moser); U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,144 (Margulies); U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,004 (Intini); U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,618 (Wood); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,118 (Thompson).
Child resistant medication packages that use peeling have been in use for some time, however, many people who do not have sufficient motor skills or whose hands shake are not able to easily gain access to the medicament in such packages. This can be a problem especially when the medicament and the medication packages are small. Additionally, there have been a number of medication packages that are designed to be torn open to access the medication. Many medication packages that are designed to be torn suffer from the same problems as those designed for peeling, namely they are difficult to open for those with reduced motor skills or do not exhibit a high degree of child-resistance.
There is a need for a medication package that is relatively easy to open for an adult, but still be child resistant. Further, the package must be easy to manufacture without having to introduce custom machinery, so that the package remains economical. The present invention has accomplished these needs by creating a medication package that does not require fine motor skill functions, such as pinching and peeling. The present invention is relatively easy to open when a user identifies the sequence required to open the package, yet is extremely difficult to open in any other fashion, thereby avoiding some of the inherent problems of prior medication packages.